# Using geometric multigrid solvers in Firedrake¶

In addition to the full gamut of algebraic solvers offered by PETSc, Firedrake also provides access to multilevel solvers with geometric hierarchies. In this demo, we will see how to use this functionality. We first solve the prototypical elliptic problem, the Poisson equation. We move on to a multi-field example, the Stokes equations, demonstrating how the multigrid functionality composes with fieldsplit preconditioning.

## Creating a geometric hierarchy¶

Geometric multigrid requires a geometric hierarchy of meshes on which the equations will be discretised. To create a hierarchy, we use MeshHierarchy() to create a hierarchy of meshes, the resulting object remembers the relationships between them. Currently, these hierarchies are constructed using regular bisection refinement, so we must create a coarse mesh.

from firedrake import *

mesh = UnitSquareMesh(8, 8)


Now we will create the mesh hierarchy, providing the coarse mesh and the number of refinements we would like. Here, we request four refinements, going from 128 cells on the coarse mesh to 32768 cells on the finest.

hierarchy = MeshHierarchy(mesh, 4)


## Defining the problem: the Poisson equation¶

Having defined the hierarchy we now need to set up our problem. The most transparent way to do this is to set up the problem on the finest mesh, Firedrake then manages the rediscretised operators by providing appropriate callbacks to PETSc. In this way, we can control the behaviour of the solver entirely through runtime options. So our next step is just to grab the finest mesh and define the problem.

mesh = hierarchy[-1]

V = FunctionSpace(mesh, "CG", 1)

u = TrialFunction(V)
v = TestFunction(V)

bcs = DirichletBC(V, zero(), (1, 2, 3, 4))


For a forcing function, we will use a product of sines such that we know the exact solution and can compute an error.

x, y = SpatialCoordinate(mesh)

f = -0.5*pi*pi*(4*cos(pi*x) - 5*cos(pi*x*0.5) + 2)*sin(pi*y)

L = f*v*dx


The exact solution is:

exact = sin(pi*x)*tan(pi*x*0.25)*sin(pi*y)


We’ll demonstrate a few different sets of solver parameters, so let’s define a function that takes in set of parameters and returns the solution

def run_solve(parameters):
u = Function(V)
solve(a == L, u, bcs=bcs, solver_parameters=parameters)
return u


and another to compute the error.

def error(u):
expect = Function(V).interpolate(exact)
return norm(assemble(u - expect))


### Specifying the solver¶

Let’s start with our first test. We’ll confirm a working solve by using a direct method.

u = run_solve({"ksp_type": "preonly", "pc_type": "lu"})
print('LU solve error', error(u))


Next we’ll use the conjugate gradient method preconditioned by a geometric multigrid V-cycle. Firedrake automatically takes care of rediscretising the operator on coarse grids, and providing the number of levels to PETSc.

u = run_solve({"ksp_type": "cg", "pc_type": "mg"})
print('MG V-cycle + CG error', error(u))


For such a simple problem, an appropriately configured multigrid solve can achieve algebraic error equal to discretisation error in one cycle, without the application of a Krylov accelerator. In particular, for the Poisson equation with constant coefficients, a single full multigrid cycle with appropriately chosen smoothers achieves discretisation error. As ever, PETSc allows us to configure the appropriate settings using solver parameters.

parameters = {
"ksp_type": "preonly",
"pc_type": "mg",
"pc_mg_type": "full",
"mg_levels_ksp_type": "chebyshev",
"mg_levels_ksp_max_it": 2,
"mg_levels_pc_type": "jacobi"
}

u = run_solve(parameters)
print('MG F-cycle error', error(u))


## A saddle-point system: The Stokes equations¶

Having demonstrated basic usage, we’ll now move on to an example where the configuration of the multigrid solver is somewhat more complex. This demonstrates how the multigrid functionality composes with the other aspects of solver configuration, like fieldsplit preconditioning. We’ll use Taylor-Hood elements and solve a problem with specified velocity inflow and outflow conditions.

mesh = RectangleMesh(15, 10, 1.5, 1)

hierarchy = MeshHierarchy(mesh, 3)

mesh = hierarchy[-1]

V = VectorFunctionSpace(mesh, "CG", 2)
W = FunctionSpace(mesh, "CG", 1)
Z = V * W

u, p = TrialFunctions(Z)
v, q = TestFunctions(Z)
nu = Constant(1)

a = (nu*inner(grad(u), grad(v)) - p * div(v) + div(u) * q)*dx

L = inner(Constant((0, 0)), v) * dx

x, y = SpatialCoordinate(mesh)

t = conditional(y < 0.5, y - 0.25, y - 0.75)
l = 1.0/6.0
gbar = conditional(Or(And(0.25 - l/2 < y,
y < 0.25 + l/2),
And(0.75 - l/2 < y,
y < 0.75 + l/2)),
Constant(1.0), Constant(0.0))

value = gbar*(1 - (2*t/l)**2)
inflowoutflow = Function(V).interpolate(as_vector([value, 0]))
bcs = [DirichletBC(Z.sub(0), inflowoutflow, (1, 2)),
DirichletBC(Z.sub(0), zero(2), (3, 4))]


First up, we’ll use an algebraic preconditioner, with a direct solve, remembering to tell PETSc to use pivoting in the factorisation.

u = Function(Z)
solve(a == L, u, bcs=bcs, solver_parameters={"ksp_type": "preonly",
"pc_type": "lu",
"pc_factor_shift_type": "inblocks",
"ksp_monitor": None,
"pmat_type": "aij"})


Next we’ll use a Schur complement solver, using geometric multigrid to invert the velocity block. The Schur complement is spectrally equivalent to the viscosity-weighted pressure mass matrix. Since the pressure mass matrix does not appear in the original form, we need to supply its bilinear form to the solver ourselves:

class Mass(AuxiliaryOperatorPC):

def form(self, pc, test, trial):
a = 1/nu * inner(test, trial)*dx
bcs = None
return (a, bcs)

parameters = {
"ksp_type": "gmres",
"ksp_monitor": None,
"pc_type": "fieldsplit",
"pc_fieldsplit_type": "schur",
"pc_fieldsplit_schur_fact_type": "lower",
"fieldsplit_0_ksp_type": "preonly",
"fieldsplit_0_pc_type": "mg",
"fieldsplit_1_ksp_type": "preonly",
"fieldsplit_1_pc_type": "python",
"fieldsplit_1_pc_python_type": "__main__.Mass",
"fieldsplit_1_aux_pc_type": "bjacobi",
"fieldsplit_1_aux_sub_pc_type": "icc",
}

u = Function(Z)
solve(a == L, u, bcs=bcs, solver_parameters=parameters)


Finally, we’ll use coupled geometric multigrid on the full problem, using Schur complement “smoothers” on each level. On the coarse grid we use a full factorisation for the velocity and Schur complement approximations, whereas on the finer levels we use incomplete factorisations for the velocity block and Schur complement approximations.

Note

If we wanted to just use LU for the velocity-pressure system on the coarse grid we would have to say "mat_type": "aij", rather than "mat_type": "nest".

parameters = {
"ksp_type": "gcr",
"ksp_monitor": None,
"mat_type": "nest",
"pc_type": "mg",
"mg_coarse_ksp_type": "preonly",
"mg_coarse_pc_type": "fieldsplit",
"mg_coarse_pc_fieldsplit_type": "schur",
"mg_coarse_pc_fieldsplit_schur_fact_type": "full",
"mg_coarse_fieldsplit_0_ksp_type": "preonly",
"mg_coarse_fieldsplit_0_pc_type": "lu",
"mg_coarse_fieldsplit_1_ksp_type": "preonly",
"mg_coarse_fieldsplit_1_pc_type": "python",
"mg_coarse_fieldsplit_1_pc_python_type": "__main__.Mass",
"mg_coarse_fieldsplit_1_aux_pc_type": "cholesky",
"mg_levels_ksp_type": "richardson",
"mg_levels_ksp_max_it": 1,
"mg_levels_pc_type": "fieldsplit",
"mg_levels_pc_fieldsplit_type": "schur",
"mg_levels_pc_fieldsplit_schur_fact_type": "upper",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_0_ksp_type": "richardson",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_0_ksp_convergence_test": "skip",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_0_ksp_max_it": 2,
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_0_ksp_richardson_self_scale": None,
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_0_pc_type": "bjacobi",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_0_sub_pc_type": "ilu",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_1_ksp_type": "richardson",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_1_ksp_convergence_test": "skip",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_1_ksp_richardson_self_scale": None,
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_1_ksp_max_it": 3,
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_1_pc_type": "python",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_1_pc_python_type": "__main__.Mass",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_1_aux_pc_type": "bjacobi",
"mg_levels_fieldsplit_1_aux_sub_pc_type": "icc",
}

u = Function(Z)
solve(a == L, u, bcs=bcs, solver_parameters=parameters)


Finally, we’ll write the solution for visualisation with Paraview.

u, p = u.split()
u.rename("Velocity")
p.rename("Pressure")

File("stokes.pvd").write(u, p)


A runnable python version of this demo can be found here.